Striving to be Human
by Extrapolation
Summary: Two identical souls, hidden beneath different masks. They both had an enemy. But how do you wage war with yourself? OC. ჯ Pairings inside. From a few years before the Wutai War to AC and beyond.
1. Prologue

**Title: **Striving to be Human  
**Summary:** Two identical souls, hidden beneath different masks. They both had an enemy. But how do you wage war with yourself? ჯ Pairings inside.  
**Pairings:** Complicated. Onesided Gen/Seph, onesided Seph/Rufus, Gen/OC/Rufus, very possibly many others.  
**Beta:** Unbeta-ed.  
**Warnings:** Character death, violence, language, teenage themes.

**A/N:** Hellooo, my dear readers. It's my first FFVII fanfic, and personally, I think it's my best fanfic so far! It will begin a few years before the Wutai War and will progress rapidly to post-AC and beyond. Updates will be slow until summer break, when it will hopefully speed up. Chapters will be longer than this. Reviews would be lovely. Criticism is GREATLY appreciated!

_::Drench yourself in words unspoken_  
_Live your life with arms wide open_  
_Today is where your book begins_  
_The rest is still unwritten  
~ _Unwritten::

~Prologue~

Picture Wutai.

Lush forests filled with the incessant chattering of animals, contrasting starkly against barren mountain ranges prowled by starved predators and aggressive monsters. In the forest, the streams sparkle in the filtered sunlight and the agile fish within dart about, a rainbow of glittering scales. At the origin of the streams, far up upon the mountain ranges, the water does not sparkle but froths madly, cascading down the bare rock in a furious frenzy. Yet the vibrant forests are where most meet their deaths rather than the lonely mountains, for in the shrubbery hides the patient snake and the lurking tiger.

Of course, the Wutaia ninjas that live in those forests have _nothing_ to do with those deaths—especially the ones of Shin-Ra personnel.

What? You don't believe me?

The Wutaia people are a lot like the land they live on. They seem charming yet mystical, their culture beautifully refined and their manners immaculate. They are very proud and prize their way of life above all else. But cloaked under their mystique is a fierce cunning and almost maniacal independence. They will fight to the end to protect their family, land and honor—_especially_ their honor.

Really, what was Shin-Ra thinking when they tried to infringe on Wutaia property?

Oh, right. President Shinra was in charge, the power-hungry, obese, lowly—

I apologize. I'm getting off topic.

Picture Wutai… again.

Now zoom in on the forest nestled between the mountain ranges ringing central Wutai. The trees in this area are quite peculiar. Their branches have grown in such a way that they interlace each other, their leaves blocking sunlight from reaching the ground below. Even in the winter no sunlight graces the earth, because the dead leaves of the trees are trapped by the fine thread-like branches. The first Wutaia settlers that discovered this place were intrigued by the strange trees, and they decided it was a perfect place for concealment. Even back then, the Wutaia spirit ran through their blood.

Since then, the trees have been slowly shaped by the will of the rare geomancer that graces the nation. Now, none can distinguish these trees from the rest. Let us delve deeper and see what lies beneath the branches. Let's see… darkness, darkness, darkness, more darkness, dark—ah yes, a settlement.

Wait, you say. A settlement? It's pitch black down there!

Not true, say I. Do you seriously believe that the revered geomancers of the past should make such an amateurish mistake? No, the sages easily compensated for the lack of sunlight. I believe this was their reasoning.

No sunlight, you say? Well, our powers aren't quite on par with the sun. How does moonlight sound, eh chap?

Well. Maybe not quite like that.

Regardless of what really happened, the end result was a gigantic "materia" mounted on a tree. It shone like the moon—or so people claimed. Back then, I had never seen the moon before, and wouldn't know. The "moonlight" gave everything a beautiful silvery sheen, but that also caused colors to become dull and gray, for only the vibrant light of the sun could bring out true color. However, the occupants of the village didn't mind. Some, like me, had never seen true color and couldn't tell the difference.

Besides these strange features, the hidden village was quite peaceful and ordinary in its ways. Sort of.

Welcome to Mikazuki Village, my isolated hometown.

* * *

A floating behemoth of rugged asphalt and cold steel hangs above the shadowed city that lies meekly upon the ground. Viewed from above, Midgar resembles a metallic pizza with eight sections and a sky-high decoration in the form of a building. The huge building, labeled _Shin-Ra Electric Power Company_, squats in the middle of the levitating metropolis, a greedy parasite sucking out the lifeblood of The Planet. From within, an overweight bastard of a man in a red suit rules most of the world with an iron fist, albeit one clad in velvet. From without, Gaia makes her displeasure with the parasite clear. The skies above the smoke-belching city are eternally gloomy and dark, save for a lone beam of sunlight gracing the interior of a single church that lies beneath the solemn metal plates of Midgar.

What makes it so special, that Gaia Herself would go out of Her way to bring it light?

Something, or nothing, depending on who you asked.

Above "the plate," as the denizens of this dystopian world calls it, life is good – despite the weather being horrible. Not that anybody notices, since it is always this way. The weather, I mean; not life. The wealthy families living up here live a luxurious lifestyle; upper Midgar is mostly crime-free, has fine architecture and refined entertainment such as the famous play LOVELESS. There is only the best for the influential men that practically rule the world.

But if one were to take a peek below the plate, they would be shocked by the squalor of "the slums," as the filthy, ramshackle city below the plate has been dubbed. Most below the plate live out their entire too-short lives without ever seeing the sky—not that there's much to see, anyway. They spend their lives in constant terror of monster attacks and view any rough shelter from the dangers of the world as their home. Children and adults alike resort to thievery as their hard-earned gil is sucked away by the rich, who have never heard the language of an empty stomach or felt the icy grip of terror as a pack of monsters descend upon them. The occupants of the slums have long ago had their rebellious spirit driven out of them, though, and do not fight the iron grip of their oppressor. But things will change.

Meet the heralds of a new age.

A beautiful young girl with her mother tends the only flowers that grow in Midgar.

A tall teenage boy stands beside a man with black hair and glasses, his cat-like eyes downcast.

A street rat with a shock of red hair wonders briefly what it's like to be a Turk.

And a small strawberry blonde child dressed in immaculate white stands at the side of the ruler of the world.

Welcome to Midgar, the epitome of human engineering.

* * *

Review, please! I love criticism, praise, predictions... everything. Except flames. I always want to improve my writing.  
Do I sound annoying...?


	2. Prologue II

**Title: **Striving to be Human  
**Summary:** Two identical souls, hidden beneath different masks. They both had an enemy. But how do you wage war with yourself? ჯ Pairings inside.  
**Pairings:** Complicated. Onesided Gen/Seph, onesided Seph/Rufus, Gen/OC/Rufus, very possibly many others.  
**Beta:** Unbeta-ed.  
**Warnings:** Character death, violence, language, teenage themes.

**A/N: **This was going to be a chapter. Really. But it just came out with nothing really happening but the introduction of characters and setting, so I decided to call it another prologue. It's too short for a chapter anyway. Reviews are greatly appreciated!

~Prologue II~

_::Drench yourself in words unspoken  
Live your life with arms wide open  
Today is where your book begins  
The rest is still unwritten  
~ _Unwritten::

A young girl stood at the tree line, fidgeting impatiently and peering into the darkness of the forest. Judging from the steady trickle of children walking home, the school day had just ended. The girl appeared to be about 7 years old. Her black hair reached an inch or two past her ears, and she had slanted brown eyes with similarly slanted black eyebrows. She jumped up and down, too excited to stay still as she waits. A soft crackle of snapping branches made her suddenly go still, listening intently. The song of a nightingale floats through the air and she laughed happily, recognizing the tune.

"Daichi!" she cried joyfully, seeing a young ninja splitting away from the darkness. He was dressed in loose-fitting camouflage clothes, designed to enable free movement, but no helmet. A durable leather bag holding healing items and materia was strapped around his waist. The standard giant shuriken was strapped to his back and the lower half of his face was obscured by dark cloth. In other words, he was well equipped for patrolling the forest. She bounded over and hugged him.

"Hey, squirt," he chuckled, voice slightly muffled by the mask as he ruffles her hair. The child pulled away and took a deep breath.

"What was it like? Were you scared? Did you get hurt? Were there any bad guys? Is it bright outside? What did it look like? Did you get any flowers? Does it smell funny outside? Can I go next time?"

The youth knelt down so that his face was on level with the girl's.

"I'm fine, Kit, it was really bright, it does not smell funny, _no_ you can_not_ go with us, and I got you flowers, like I promised." Daichi pulled out a clump of somewhat-squished flowers from his bag, offering them to the child. Their vibrant colors were toned down and grayish in the artificial light, he noted. He thought of the blinding light of the sun and the beautiful, heavenly color of the outside world, and felt a twinge of sadness. He was suddenly aware of the young girl's slanted brown eyes staring at him expectantly, and he realized she had asked him _more_ questions. Fortunately, the ninja was saved from answering the second barrage of questions by his commander.

"Trainee! Quit flirting with the kid and haul your ass over here!" The boy cast a slightly apologetic glance at the girl before rushing back to his squad.

"Flirting? She's half my age, sir!" he says in mock indignation, smiling slightly. Rank was mostly disregarded in this small, sleepy town that was so isolated from the rest of the world. It was simply there to produce an illusion of order.

"Wouldn't put it past you," a voice called out, accompanied by snickers. The girl's friend clutched the area over his heart in an exaggerated gesture, feigning hurt.

"Murakami, how could you?" he said dramatically. "I thought we were _friends_!" he wailed, grinning as the snickers turned into full-blown laughter. The laughter stopped abruptly though, and the grin morphed into confusion before he saw the way his fellows stared right… over… his… shoulder.

He slowly straightened and peeked behind him. And immediately snapped to attention, a hasty greeting tumbling out of his lips. Rank was _mostly_ disregarded. Mostly.

There was an exception to this, in the form of the legendary Wutai ninja in front of Daichi who just so happened to be his father. There were other exceptions as well; the legendary Crescent Unit of Wutai lived in the village when not carrying out the will of Leviathan. Needless to say, showing disrespect to the elite ninjas was intolerable.

Wait. Back up a bit. Daichi had a father who was a legendary ninja? Yeah, totally awesome, right?

Wrong.

Tsukuri Banashi was _strict._ And not just "do-your-homework-right-after-school-and-if-you-miss-a-problem-on-a-test-I'll-gut-you" strict, but_ really strict._

Of course, just like all those big, scary guys, he was a real softie on the inside.

I think.

"Sir!" the group of ninjas said in unison, snapping rigidly into attention. He circled them slowly, then went to talk to the leader of the patrol.

The little girl watched Banashi in awe before rushing home and leaving her friend to his fate.

.

"One day," the child, Kit, proclaimed to a random tree, "I'm gonna become a hero and save people."

A squirrel chittered at her. If she had understood squirrel speak, she would have heard "That's nice, dearie." However, she didn't understand squirrel speak, so she just absently wondered why the squirrel wasn't shrieking at birds like usual.

Kit headed up the dirt path that lead to her house, one of the largest and most elaborate ones in the village. There were a total of twenty-six buildings in the village, covering an area of about 50,000 square feet. The houses themselves were not very large; the village was simply quite spread out. Strategically-placed giant materia kept the settlement from darkness. These materia, dubbed "Moon Materia" because of their pale color and moonlight-like glow, were said to have been created by the ancient Wutaia sages. There were nine in total: the New Moon, Waxing Crescent, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Last Quarter, Waning Crescent, and the largest one, the Blue Moon. They were arranged in a vaguely circular shape in the order of the moon cycle, with the Blue Moon in the center of the other eight. Kit headed towards this central materia.

Reaching her house(which had quite a nice view of the Blue Moon), she rapped out a pattern on the front door. _Tap-tap, pause. Tap, pause. Tap-tap, tap-tap-tap. _The door opened smoothly, welcoming her home. Only the front door had this mechanism; in truth, the family had not installed it for protection against burglars. Indeed, all of the occupants of the village were acquainted. It would be dishonorable to steal from a friend. No, the device was there to save the family from having to stop whatever they were doing just to open the door. And Kit—Kit didn't care what the mechanism was for. She just thought it was cool.

She entered the house, humming softly to herself as the door closed behind her with a quiet _click._ The girl walked through a room into a corridor, turning right when it branched.

"I'm home!" she called out as she entered the spotless kitchen. Her parents were neat freaks, but it didn't bother her. She was one, too. Her brothers, on the other hand—not so much. She made a face as she noticed a pair of socks on the floor and a jacket strewn over a couch. Her fingers just _itched_ to pick them up and put them in the laundry, where they belonged.

Speaking of her brothers, there were four of them: Murakami, Yoshi, Chiko and Tseng. She didn't much like any of them, except for Tseng. Tseng was cute—for now, at least. He was only one year old; who knew what he would be like when he grew up?

"Just as cute," the girl decided, nodding as she tossed socks and jacket into the laundry basket. Tseng would never be as noisy, obnoxious and dirty as her brothers. Even now he was a quiet, neat baby(well, kind of) and sure didn't smell as bad as her older brothers. Kit stuck her head into Tseng's room, grinning as she found him asleep. She quietly closed the door and went upstairs to her own room to get a head start on homework. She grabbed a piece of paper, got out her math book and sat down at her desk. The light from the Blue Moon was dim in comparison the sun, but the inhabitants of the village knew nothing brighter. Their eyes were adjusted to the half-light of the moon. She picked up a pencil and clumsily scrawled her name on the top of the page, mumbling as she wrote.

"Kitsariya Katashi."

* * *

No, it is not a coincidence. Yes, Tseng is Tseng the Turk.

Comments, predictions, musings about how the hell Tseng came to work for Shinra, criticism, flames? Or maybe not flames...

Reviews feed my muses!


	3. Chapter I: Gifts

******Title: **Striving to be Human  
**Summary:** Two identical souls, hidden beneath different masks. They both had an enemy. But how do you wage war with yourself? ჯ Pairings inside. From a few years before the Wutai War to AC and beyond.  
**Pairings:** Complicated. Onesided Gen/Seph, onesided Seph/Rufus, Gen/OC/Rufus, very possibly many others.  
**Beta:** Unbeta-ed.  
**Warnings:** Character death, violence, language, teenage themes.

**A/N: **Oh dear. This is where the timelines and stuff come in. Prepare for confusion. I have played no FFVII games other than Crisis Core, and therefore may screw up some have been warned. Time will be confusing. To clear things up, I'll tell you: there will be a bit of timeskipping. Also, Rufus and Tseng are the same age and both of them are 6 years younger than Kit. That's all for now. Now read, read and review!

* * *

_::Drench yourself with words unspoken  
Live your life with arms wide open  
Today is where your book begins  
The rest is still unwritten  
~Unwritten::_

**.:Chapter I: Gifts:.**

_**December 14**__**th**__**,**__**μ – εуλ 1988**_

_**Morning**_

_Dear Diary,_

_Do you know what day it is? No, don't answer that, (not that you could anyway, hah) I _know_ what day it is! It's my 8__th__ birthday! Isn't that great? I mean, it means I'm older and deader than before but I get presents and a party and a birthday cake! Tseng's birthday is only four days before mine but my mom and dad don't want to buy a humongous cake just for him, you know? So they're combining the parties, so we're sharing a cake, and I'm going to make him help me blow out the candles. It'll be so much fun! Daichi's coming too, and he says that he got me a really awesome present. He wouldn't tell me what it was, though… Too bad, I guess. I just don't really like surprises. They're surprising, you know? _

_I should probably hurry downstairs and eat breakfast. We've got to hang up some more decorations and balloons. This is going to be the best day ever!_

.

Kit flipped her journal closed and stretched, yawning. She had been so excited the night before that she couldn't fall asleep, and had lain in bed for hours. The exhaustion would vanish soon, though; true to her nature, she practically bounced down the steps to the kitchen. No lack of sleep would make her unhappy on her birthday, especially when there was going to be a party and cake and _presents._ It was a great day, a terrific day, and even the Blue Moon seemed brighter than usual to Kit. _Nobody,_ not _anywhere,_ could be having a bad day, the girl decided.

She was wrong, because somebody somewhere was having a _terrible_ day, but that is not the point. The point is that today was a momentous day in Kit's life, not because it was her birthday, but because of the gift she received. Look, I'm getting sidetracked _again…_

Kit and her family spent some time cleaning the house to make it presentable and also to find various lost articles of clothing, ("_Ewww,_ whose sock is this?" "Oh, hey! I thought I lost that one a couple months ago." "…" "What?" "Chiko, that's disgusting.") much to Kit's disgust. However, as I mentioned before, there was _nothing_ that could make her unhappy on her birthday. She kept an optimistic view towards life in general even when she found out Tseng got sick and monsters had appeared in the forest, making it dangerous to travel alone. Even Kit's cheerfulness had its limits, though. The bakery closing was the last straw.

"No cake, no party; no party, no fun. This sucks," she declared and flopped onto her bed, glaring out the window moodily. Her parents wouldn't let her outside because of the monsters, even though Kit promised she would take a bunch of shurikens and if she found a monster she would run and hide in a tree immediately—not that she would; she wasn't a coward, and anyway, no monster could defeat her, but of course she didn't say that—yet her parents adamantly refused. So here she was, cooped up in the house with nothing to do. She cursed her bad luck—well, not really, since the worst insult she dared to use was "blind wombat"—and half-heartedly hoped somebody would come over and give her a present at least. Somebody brave would do it. Somebody like… Daichi, yes, Daichi was brave because he was a ninja and his dad was famous and all. Surely his dad's awesomeness had rubbed off on him?

As if the very thought of her friend had brought him, the doorbell rang. She glanced downward through her window, her bedroom being in the front of the house, and saw—yes!—it was indeed Daichi. Filled with newfound energy, she practically bounded down the stairs to go greet him. It turned out that he _had_ come to bring her a present, and remembering how the young ninja had told her about it earlier, she was eager to find out what it was.

The young ninja opened his mouth. "Kit—"

"You can over here to give me my present? That's so awesome!" the child squealed, cutting him off. "I bet you're the only one who's going to do that," she added unhappily. She quickly brightened up again when her friend gave up trying to talk and pulled out a box wrapped in a ribbon. She eagerly accepted it and undid the ribbon. Opening the box, she found that the gift was wrapped in brightly colored paper. The girl felt the gift. It was flat and hard. Curious, Kit eagerly ripped apart the wrapping paper and caught a glimpse of leather. Pulling away the brightly colored paper, she gasped as she saw the present.

It was a pair of flat knives, complete with sheaths designed to snugly wrap around one's forearm. The 8-year-old cautiously drew out a knife and admired the beautiful wave patterns of the steel, mouth agape as she took in everything from the materia slots to that special blue-ish tint of the steel that indicated it had been reinforced with crystallized mako. Kit felt like exploding from sheer happiness and excitement, and she made it _very_ clear to her friend by telling him how awesome his present was and gleefully jumping on him without sheathing the knife, then apologizing profusely when she almost stabbed him. Daichi just laughed.

"Told you it was awesome, didn't I?" he asked, grinning. She nodded vigorously.

"But where did you get it from?" she asked. Knives like this were costly; mako-reinforced steel was hard to get, and working it was even harder. Her question seemed to catch the boy off-guard; he stuttered a bit, awkwardly, and muttered something. Confused, Kit asked again.

"My father gave them to me—" he glanced at Kit, gauging her reaction, "—but don't worry!" he added hastily, seeing her eyes growing wide with shock.

"Um, I'm not really a knife person, and I don't need it, really, because I've already got my shuriken, and I don't think my dad would mind and uh… it's okay. Really." The words tumbled out of his mouth in a rush to be heard before Kit made any loud protests. It seemed to work, because the girl shut her mouth.

"Oh…" she said, and paused as if thinking. "That's… _so awesome!_" She grinned at her friend's confused expression.

"The knives were from your dad and your dad gave them to you and you gave them to me, so it's sort of like your _dad_ gave me the knives and that means I got a present from somebody _famous._" Her eyes sparkled, and Daichi rolled his eyes, though he was smiling too. It was then that her parents finally came to the door. Kit whirled around and immediately displayed the gifts to her parents, beaming. What she did not anticipate, though, was her parents being _unhappy._ Why were they unhappy? It was such an awesome present! It must have cost like, _bunches_ of money, _tons_, and anyway it was from Banashi and that automatically made it amazing. Her parents just didn't seem to get it.

Kit couldn't—wouldn't—understand that her parents didn't want their only girl, their _baby_, to be going out and fighting. So, they explained to her that they would be very worried if she were to fight, and what if she got killed? They would be so, _so_ unhappy.

With the rebellious attitude of teenagers everywhere, the 8-year-old decided that since her parents wanted to coddle her, she would not be coddled. Kit protested loudly—_very_ loudly—and Daichi discreetly crept away from the house. The argument eventually ended with her parents on top, of course. The daggers were hidden away in some dark corner of the house and Kit was shooed up the stairs and put in bed, sulking the whole way. She promised herself that the next day she would find those knives and learn to use them, somehow. Her parents wouldn't know about it, because Kit was going to be a _ninja._ She would have to be sneaky. This was her first test.

The next day, she woke up at the crack of dawn(well, not really, but she liked to believe it) and began to search the house. The stairs creaked, and there were too many creaky ones to remember, so Kit slid down the banister to begin her search.

After a long hour and a half of fruitless searching—though she did find quite a few hidden compartments she didn't know were there before—she finally discovered a loose floorboard that lifted up when she pulled it. Underneath were her beloved daggers. She pumped a fist victoriously, something she learned from her friend Daichi, and pulled them out. She immediately realized that pulling it out so carelessly could have triggered an alarm, but nothing happened. Apparently, her parents did not think she would find it, or at least not so quickly. Kitsariya one, parents zero. She pushed the floorboard down and began to creep back towards her room, clutching the sheathed weapons. Walking through the corridor, she distantly heard the sound of running water.

_Mom must be up_, she thought absently, then realized what it meant.

"Oh no," she whispered, and as she heard her mother's quick footsteps coming near, she awkwardly half-leaped half-walked to avoid making noise and hurried towards the living room and its thick, opaque curtains. She ducked behind one just as her mother strode into the room on her way to the kitchen to fix breakfast. She held still, barely breathing until the clanking of dishes was heard. Only then did she slip out and climb up the banister to her room where she collapsed on her bed and silently cheered.

_Passed the test with flying colors_, she decided and couldn't stop a goofy grin from spreading across her face. She would become a ninja in no time, she just knew it.

The soon-to-be ninja promptly fell asleep.

.

_**December 15**__**th**__**,**__**μ – εуλ 1988**_

_**After waking up again**_

_Dear Diary,_

_This is soooo awesome! My mom and dad hid the daggers Daichi gave me, but I found them! I feel __ve__vihk__victoriu__ victorious! Haha, sorry, I always seem to mess up that word. Oh, and I have the greatest idea. Since I have these awesome daggers, I've got to learn how to use them, so I'm going to ask Daichi to ask his dad to teach me. I would ask Daichi to be my teacher, but he said that he's not much of a knife person, and I figure since his dad gave Daichi such cool knives he must use even better ones. I just hope Banashi won't mind. And of course, Daichi won't mind. He's like, my best-est-er-est friend!_

_Uh oh, my mom's calling; I should get down quick. If she comes up and finds the daggers, she'll freak. I'm going to hide them somewhere safe—I won't even tell _you_ where, Diary. Hah!_

.

Kit flipped her journal closed, the hardback cover making a soft _fwap_ noise against the pages. She leapt out of her room and quickly slid down the banister, her customary grin on her face, which abruptly vanished when she remembered that she should be sulking. She replaced the grin with a pout. She changed her bouncy, hyper movements to ones that would be considered normal to other people.

_I won't shuffle my feet or droop,_ the girl thought. _If I act too sad, they'll try to give the knives back as long as I promise not to use them, and find out I took them. Then they'll like… watch me or something. It's better if they completely forget about them._

.

_**After breakfast**_

_Haha, my parents didn't suspect a thing. I told them I would go for a walk in a bit, and that's when I'll ask Daichi. The monsters are all gone, so they're letting me go. Should I bring the knives with me? I think I should, but what if I get discovered? I'm not sure if I'll even need them…_

_Whatever, I'll bring them. They're cool, and anyway, I should practice wearing them._

.

Kit put away her journal and glanced around furtively to make sure she wasn't being watched. Then, she nimbly climbed on top of the bookshelf in the corner and cautiously reached towards a loose board in the wooden ceiling, grasping the edge of the shelf for balance. She pulled it open slightly and caught the sheathed knives as they slid out. Any Wutai citizen knew to keep plenty of hidden compartments in their house, and Kit's family was no exception.

The girl quickly clambered down and strapped the knives, somewhat clumsily, to her bare arms. She then pulled on a loose-sleeved jacket and waved her arms about to make sure the knives did not show. Satisfied, she descended from her room and left, calling out a good-bye to her parents. Kitsariya walked down the road, unable to stop herself from occasionally fidgeting uncomfortably from the unaccustomed tightness around her arms. She didn't really mind, though; it was like she was a ninja already. Once her house was out of sight, she forsook the beaten dirt road for the trees, climbing up with ease and jumping from branch to branch like a real ninja—albeit much slower than one. She grinned as birds and squirrels fled as she advanced, and stopped outside Banashi's house. She jumped down from the tree like she'd seen other ninjas do, but stumbled a bit and winced at the jarring impact as she landed incorrectly. She wasn't a ninja yet, it seemed. She pulled down the sleeves of her jacket which had ridden up a bit during the journey and after gather her courage, knocked on the door.

Unfortunately, Tsukuri Banashi opened it instead of Daichi.

Kit paused, thrown off by this sudden hitch in her plans, before launching into a hasty explanation for her being there.

"Oh uh, hi! You're Daichi's dad, right? See, he gave me this totally awesome present and um, I wanted to thank him?" She paused uncertainly, and realizing her lie was really obvious, she immediately tried to distract him from it.

"So yeah um, can you teach me how to use knives?"

Whoops. That was _not_ what she had meant to say. Banashi cast his sharp gaze over her and she immediately began to wish she could just vanish. Poof.

"You're the one my son gave the knives to?" He watched her intently.

"Um, yeah… so, like, could you teach me? I really wanna become a ninja!"

The man's stern features softened and he chuckled a little.

"Sure, kid." Kit coulda swore her eyes almost popped out of her head.

"_Really?_ Th-thanks—" she stopped herself, realizing he was her mentor now.

"Thank you, _shi fu_," she said instead, politely bowing. The edges of Banashi's eyes crinkled in amusement and he walked into the house, the girl following eagerly.

_I see the potential Daichi saw in her, now._

**.:|:.**

"No, you're gripping them too tightly. And your stance is too stiff, relax a bit."

Kit obediently followed his instructions, loosening her stance.

"Yes, that's better. Fighting with knives is all about being able to flow easily from offensive to defensive and striking quickly and precisely. You can't be too stiff or you won't react quickly enough."

The girl nodded, committing every bit of advice to memory. Tsukuri held a long wooden baton in his hands, circling her, examining her stance from every angle as he talked. The wood of his weapon was scarred with multiple slash marks and stained with dark reddish splotches, clear signs of use. The room they were in had a bamboo mat—hard enough to hurt if you fell on it, but soft enough not to break anything—and wooden walls that had more than a few grooves and pits from knives. The ninja stopped in front of Kit.

"Slash me," he said. Kit stood and stared, the words not quite processing. Seeing her hesitation, he held his baton up.

"Don't worry," he assured her. "I'll block it."

The girl hesitated for just a moment more before bringing up her knives and attacking. The man easily blocked the clumsy slashes, noting that it appeared she was attempting to copy the moves he did when he had showed her what knife fighting really looked like.

"Alright, stop," he said at last. He glanced at a clock above the door, and decided she had been on her "walk" for long enough.

"You shouldn't try to copy other people's battle styles; everybody is different. Keep that in mind for the next lesson, alright? We'll meet in two days at the same time."

"We're stopping already?" Kit whined.

"Your parents are probably worried. Your "walk" has already taken over half an hour," he said drily. Kit glanced at the clock and squeaked, quickly sliding the knives back into the arm sheathes and throwing her jacket on. She thanked Banashi and ran back to her house, tapping out her pattern on the door and entering.

"I'm back," she calls out and heads toward the stairway leading up to her room. As she passed by Murakami, who was sprawled on the living room sofa reading a book, he looked up.

"Hey, Kit, have you heard the news?" he asked casually. Kit shook her head, interested.

"What news?" she asked curiously.

"The Crescent Unit is going to make a base here. They're arriving tomorrow."

There was a long pause as the girl tried to wrap her mind around the idea. The Crescent Unit—_the_ ultimate ninjas—were coming to this village. The same village where she lived. A group of ninjas even better than Banashi, and Banashi was famous.

"No kidding?" she whispered.

"I'm completely serious," Murakami replied. He was the more decent older brother. He didn't mess with her as much as Chiko. Kit practically exploded with glee, hugging her older brother(which she would probably regret doing later) and racing up the stairs to her room.

It was then that she realized what she wanted, and how that she would achieve it. She was going to be a great ninja, better than Banashi, and the first step would be to join the Crescent Unit.

She vowed that one day, she would be known all over Wutai as a great-_the greatest-_ninja.

It was a decision that changed her life forever.

* * *

_**December 14**__**th**__**,**__**μ – εуλ 1991**_

On a planet slowly losing its life force…

In a barren wasteland…

Upon a floating metropolis…

Within the infamous Shinra building…

A white box with air holes discreetly covered by a blood-red ribbon lay in front of a child. Judging by the balloons in the room, it was the child's birthday. The 5-year-old boy opened it eagerly.

Inside was a neatly packaged white chocobo.

"Wark?"

Rufus Shinra blinked, then shrugged and glanced at the card attached to the bird's plain white collar. _From Iris,_ it read. _Veld helped me pick it out. I hope you like the collar he chose!_ Iris. His mother, who he rarely met due to his father's disapproval of any contact between them. His attention was drawn away from the card to the chocobo chick which was unhappily clawing at the collar with a foot. It glared accusingly at Rufus, who frowned back.

"Don't blame me. It was him," the child told the bird plaintively, gesturing at Veld. The chick tilted its head quizzically, then "kweh"-ed softly and transferred its glare to the Turk. _It's true, they really are smart,_ he thought as he absently stroked the chocobo's feathers. His gaze wandered to the card again and he dwelled on the unfairness of not being able to see his mother much. After all, she was _his_ mother, so shouldn't he be able to choose whether he could see her or not? The strawberry blonde's eyes lit up as he thought of this. Surely, his father would _have_ to let him see his mother when presented such a convincing argument? Rufus Shinra decided to try it out.

He asked Veld if he could see his father but Veld told him his father was in a meeting. Oh well. He would ask later, he supposed. Rufus had nothing to do but brood over the injustices of his short life. Come to think of it, there were plenty of things he wasn't allowed to do and many people he wasn't allowed to visit. He wasn't allowed to even wander around the Shinra building, or even leave the room he was in until his father came back.

Rufus decided he didn't like not having control over his life.

He would have to fix that, wouldn't he?

* * *

You'll be seeing little bits of Rufus' life throughout the chapters. The purpose of this you will probably figure out pretty soon.

Something seems… off about this chapter. I can't figure it out.  
-thinks hard-  
I just… don't know. You. Readers. Yeah, I mean you there. No, you, not_ you._ Oh whatever; just _somebody_ help me out and tell me everything that's wrong with how I presented this chapter; it's bugging me SO MUCH.  
I had to sort of drag this chapter out of my brain, 'cause nothing really happens except backstory and character development… Maybe that's it?

Anyway... Stay tuned for Chapter II: Lessons.


	4. Author Note DON'T KILL ME MEEP

**WARNING: THIS IS A DREADED, GODS-FORSAKEN AUTHOR'S NOTE. IT DESERVES TO BURN IN THE NON-EXISTENT HELL, BE FLAYED BY THE IMAGINARY DEVIL, AND THEN HAVE ITS DIGITAL ASHES EATEN BY VULTURES. AMEN.**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own TF2, vultures, God, and any other religious stuffs mentioned above.

And now that that's out of the way, I would like to unhappily tell you that you will not get another update for this story for quite a while. Reasons are on my profile page, as well as short previews for upcoming stories. The characters of this story have read my excuses, found them unreasonable, and gone on strike.

**Kit: **Duh we've gone on strike! Some dumb shooting game ain't better than us! Didn't you hear? I'm going to be an awesome ninja when I grow up, just you wait!

First off, Kit, TF2 is NOT DUMB. Second, about you becoming a famous ninja... we'll see how that works out, won't we?

Anyway, (and here I raise my voice to cover up the EXTREMELY LOUD protests of Kit, Rufus, and a few people that I will not name just yet) you should check out my profile if you're wondering what my lame excuse for slow updates is THIS TIME, or if you want to see the extremely angsty **exciting **previews of my stories.

**Shameless advertisement: **I also have a preview for an intriguing(in my opinion) original story I'm writing up on my fictionpress. The link to my fictionpress account is also on my fanfiction profile page! Go check it out!

BONK.


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